Innovative Projects Realized

CO2-responsive agents for uses in protective coatings

Solvent-based coatings are used for protecting transportation vessels, buildings and infrastructures. They give glossy and durable coatings to protect materials, but their continued use is dangerous to workers and causes environmental damage. Environmentally friendly and safer water-based alternatives exist, but they are less durable and suffer from inferior performance. Unfortunately, the process used to make water-based coatings requires the use of surfactants, which cause the performance problems. We use a novel CO2-responsive surfactant that switches to a non-surfactant as the coating dries. For the first time, a high performance water-based coating can be made that may replace certain solvent-based approaches. The research and development in this coating will be critical in giving industry an alternative coating technology that is more environmentally benign and safer than current coatings.

Isolation of endophytic bacteria from corn grown in high and low yielding sites of SouthernOntario

Corn is widely used in many industrial sectors, especially in the production of alcohol in countries like

Canada. Corn production involves heavy application of chemical fertilizers which accounts at least

20% of the energy costs to a producer. Usage of biofertilizers may be one alternative for reducing

production costs. The objective of this proposal is to study microorganism communities present in the

rhizosphere and endosphere of corn, grown at high and low yielding sites in South Western Ontario.

The intern will be involved in various aspects of the initial phases of the research, including collection

of samples, processing of samples and isolating endophytic bacteria. This will enhance the efforts of

the industrial in the collection and analysis of the results and Significantly boost the research effort.

Commercial-Scale Spatial Atomic Layer Deposition Technology

Researchers at the University of Waterloo have developed atmospheric pressure spatial atomic layer deposition technology for depositing thin films that are nanometers (billionths of a meter) thick. Notably, the developed equipment can deposit these films rapidly, over large areas, in open air. This technology can be useful in a number of sectors, such as display technologies, smart windows, microelectronics, and solar cells. In this research project, the intern will use information collected through the Lab2Market commercialization program to make improvements to the technology that will help bring it to market. This will include the development of a new “reactor” that will improve the quality of the deposited films and the speed and efficiency with which they are deposited.

Promising practices for addressing social isolation among community-dwelling older adults

As Canada’s population continues to age, social isolation among older persons is being increasingly recognized as a concern. Social isolation affects over 30 percent of older adults and is associated with a range of negative health outcomes, from loneliness and depression to increased mortality. The overarching objective of this project is to identify promising practices for addressing social isolation in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Specifically, the project seeks to better understand the experience of people who are socially isolated and to learn what interventions have been shown to work, why and for whom. The knowledge produced from this project will support the development of community-based strategies to address social isolation in Fredericton and will contribute to the knowledge base on social isolation in Canada.

Optimum landmark placement for improving accuracy of pedestriandead reckoning in indoor localization

Localization is a technical to find the location of a target, such as a worker walking in a plant. For outdoor localization, satellite-based global positioning system (GPS) is commonly used. GPS does not provide good accuracy for indoor localization due to the complicated indoor environment that affects the GPS signal propagation. Currently, there are two types of indoor localization methods, one is based on existing indoor wireless infrastructure (such as WiFi), and another is based on data collected by motion sensors that are attached to the target object. Both methods do not work well in many industrial environments. The WiFi coverage is either incomplete or unstable due to physical limitation or strong interference caused by machines; while algorithms using data from motion sensors can cumulate errors that exceed a tolerable level within short distances. Combining both methods helps improve the localization accuracy, but still requires sufficient WiFi coverage. Placing landmarks at fixed and known locations helps recalibrate the latter method by resetting the error to zero or near zero. In this research, we will study how to minimize the cost to place the landmarks, while achieving the required localization accuracy.

Continuity of Care in Children’s Mental Health: Finalizing a New Measure

In Senator Kirby’s 2006 report, Out of the Shadows at Last, children’s mental health was labeled the “orphan’s
orphan” of Canada’s health care system. For over two decades, the systems-of-care philosophy in children’s
mental health has recognized the need to respond to a fragmented service system through greater integration and
coordination. Continuity of care, which is how a patient experiences care over time as coherent and linked, has
been identified as an indicator of health system performance and is considered an ethical principle of care. Yet,
no instrument exists to measure continuity of care as experienced by families receiving services through the
children’s mental health system. This deficiency limits efforts to understand, and ultimately improve, continuity
of mental health care for children. The development of the Continuity of Care Scale for Children’s Mental
Health, which is the goal of the proposed research, is an important step in measuring the integration and
coordination of services from the perspective of…TOBECONTINUED

Ecophysiological consequences of environmental variability

Environmental variability is a fundamental component of adaptation; it is usually associated with modifications in the organism’s observable traits, particularly for those with limited plasticity. We will use a bioenergetic model as a framework to understand this variance in the organism’s traits. We will focus on the effect of individual physiological differences, which are represented by the parameters of the model, on the variance and covariance of life-history traits, such as growth and size, or reproductive output. First, we will show which are the consequences of inter-individual physiological differences, in constant and also different environments. Second, we will elucidate the effect of individual differences when there is environmental variability (in temperature and resource abundance). Our results will provide a theoretical approach to distinguish between the sources of variance in the organism’s observable traits. Furthermore, our findings will contribute to understanding how different species adapt to changing environments.

Modélisation thermique de la construction en bois et en argile

L’intérêt pour ce mode de construction traditionnelle à base d’argile et de bois gagne de l’intérêt à
l’international, comme un consensus émerge pour diminuer les émissions en CO2. La construction en
bois et en argile armée de fibres végétales est connue comme la technique du torchis. Cette méthode est
particulièrement appropriée dans le climat plus chaud comme en Afrique. Le besoin de maisons est
particulièrement important dans ce continent et des alternatives au ciment sont nécessaires, comme la
production de ciment représente 5-8% des émissions. De plus, les bâtiments en bois et en argile
permettent une ouverture de marché importante pour le bois du Québec.

Improved process modeling and optimization of the Birla Carbon Process

This project is a collaborative relationship between the Combustion Research Laboratory (CRL) at the University of Toronto and Birla Carbon. Birla Carbon is one of the largest manufacturers and suppliers of high quality carbon black additives globally. Carbon black has usage potential across an array of diverse application segments including rubber products, black pigment, UV protection and conductivity in plastics. Carbon black performance is determined by its fundamental properties including its particle and aggregate size, surface activity and physical form.
The objectives of this project are to improve and validate a model to predict the carbon black particle size distribution during the production process. This will increase our understanding of how the particles evolve during the process and will be used to better understand ways to control the process to produce the desired final product.

A scalable lab-grown meat with tuneable fat content using tissue engineering techniques

Meat is a food staple that is consumed and enjoyed worldwide. Global meat consumption has grown by with population growth and increase in per person consumption accounting equally for that increase. Further economic development is expected to further increase demand for meat and meat products. Livestock production to meet this insatiable demand is unsustainable due to high water consumption, greenhouse gas emission, accelerated soil erosion and pollution of waterbodies. Although solutions such as promoting low-meat diet style or switching to plant-based proteins have been suggested, their implementation hasn’t been very successful. Here, tissue culture methods developed originally for regenerative medicine have been repurposed for growing meat aggregates (minced meat type granules) in the lab as a way to address this environmental challenge.

In-field real time phosphate monitoring system for algal bloom prevention

The increase in population and associated contamination of surface and/or ground water with phosphates, nitrates, and heavy metals has resulted in scarcity of clean water in many cities around the world. Phosphate is a major pollutant responsible for the global algal bloom in various water bodies like lakes and ponds. The project focuses on developing a solid-state electrochemical phosphate sensor that can be used as a tool to predict and prevent algal blooms. The sensing system will consist of two electrodes: the phosphate sensing electrode (e.g. metal based sensor) and a reference electrode. Electrochemical sensors have many advantages over the widely used conventional colorimetric sensors. They have minimal or no chemical requirements, show less interference from turbidity, are easy to fabricate and are cost effective. Current electrochemical sensors for phosphate sensing are mainly dominated by metal based potentiometric sensors. However, metal-based sensors have a few critical shortcomings such as limited measuring range (10-1M to 10-5M)[1], single use, and inability to mass manufacture, which limits their application in environmental applications[2], [3]. The project will extend the sensor range to 10-1M to 10-7M which is critical for measuring phosphate in the environment, improve sensor reusability and develop a mass manufacturing process.

Rapid bioprinting of ring structures using primary lung epithelial cells for drug screening and wound healing assay

Disease modelling and drug development includes a stage where cells are grown and studied inside a
laboratory under controlled conditions for a varying set of parameters. One of the most commonly
performed lab tests are wound healing or cell migration where the effect of different concentrations of
drug or an allergen is studied over time. The state-of-art method of performing these wound healing
tests lack consistency, time consuming and intrusive. We have developed a method where the cells are
patterned on a surface using an external magnetic field. It takes 3 hours to pattern cells and no scratch
is needed in this case. This method is consistent and is scalable to a micro well plate format. We are
partnering with Lab2Market to perform a market research and customer discovery for the developed
technology.